Washington (CNN) - A new national survey indicates that the number of Americans who say things are going badly in the country is on the rise, as a growing number of people believe that economic conditions are getting worse.

The number of Americans who said that things were going well had been slowly but steadily rising since last fall, but numbers from a CNN/ORC International poll released Friday reverse that trend, with optimism about how things are going in the country now at 36% down seven points from April. And 63% say things are going poorly, up six points from April.- Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker

According to the survey, the number of people who say that the economy is starting to recover has also dropped five points since April, from 24% to 19%, while the number who say that the economy is still in a downturn is up six points to 39%.

"That all seems bad news for President Barack Obama's re-election chances, but only if Mitt Romney can capitalize on it," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

The CNN poll was conducted by ORC International Tuesday and Wednesday (August 7-8), with 1,010 adults nationwide questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.

soundoff(105 Responses)

Sadly, this is good news for Romney. Bad News for Obama. Hopefully in November we can get a real leader that will turn this thing around.

August 10, 2012 10:26 am at 10:26 am |

Andrew

The economy is improving in certain sectors, but, let's not lose sight of the fact that it was tanking in 2005.

August 10, 2012 10:36 am at 10:36 am |

Rick G.

When there are 3.7 million job openings in this country, how could anyone be pessimistic about the economy? When the GDP has set all-time records how can anyone be pessimistic? When the stock market has almost reached the 2008 peak, how can we be pessimistic?

August 10, 2012 10:36 am at 10:36 am |

MaryM

More and more people are discovering who Mitt really is and more and more people dont like him., Even his own party has doubts. Not to late repubs, you can still change your mind. Huntsman would be a good, experienced candidate